In honor of St. Satnislaus Kostka, the Ateneo de Manila High School Community gathered at the HS Covered Courts last 13 November 2009. Scholastic Ambrosio Flores, SJ, Jesuit Regent, delivered this shared Homily.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I am certain that all of us here right now have been asked this question when we were kids. And I surmise that you would have rattled off standard answers like becoming a doctor, lawyer, engineer or even the president of the Philippines! What was intriguing for me then was that it was not enough for us to say, I want to be a doctor. We would often append the adjective successful like: I want to be a successful doctor, a successful lawyer, a successful engineer. Now that I am an adult, I ask myself why it was necessary to append the word successful. What does it mean to be successful? Today’s mass media dictate that to be successful means to have not just more but MOST: having the most expensive car, having the most extravagant house, having the most beautiful girlfriend, having the most number of awards, having the most stable and financially rewarding career, having the most trendy gadgets.
Today, let me propose an alternative definition. I learned this definition from a friend that became my personal definition of success. It eventually led me to become a companion of Jesus, a Jesuit. He said, success is becoming what you are designed to be.
Let me illustrate it. Success is becoming what you are designed to be. This microphone is only successful when it can amplify my voice across the covered courts. The Monobloc chair you are sitting on is only successful as a chair if it is used for sitting. That Clavinova piano is only successful when it can produce music as pianos should. Things are successful when they are used according to their designer’s intended plan.
Pushing it even further, we are successful when we become who we are designed to be. No, it is not just becoming what we said we wanted to be when we were kids. Well, it is a possibility but more primordial than achieving our childhood dream is becoming who we are called to be. This is also the theme of our first reading today. Be zealous, brethren to confirm your call and election. We can only be successful when we follow our inherent call as unique human beings, when we become who God designed us to be.
Since this call of being successful in life is not something that happens overnight but is a result of the many little decisions we make daily, let us narrow it down to our day to day activities. Here in the Ateneo, we are always pushed to succeed, to excel, to exhibit magis, to do more and be more! This is evidently translated as class banners, honor cards, Kostka awards and Eagle and staff awards for excellence. In some respect, this is not really different from the world’s demand of having the most, of being the most. Yet, there is something much deeper to magis than this. This is what I want to focus on.
We always aspire for the much coveted banners. There is nothing wrong with that. However, if we aspire for the banner even at the expense of the relationships in class, I believe something is amiss. If in the process of getting the banner, we become scheming tacticians and deceivers then something is wrong. What happens to you in the process of getting banners is much more important than the banners themselves. Success is becoming who our Creator designed you to be.
There is nothing wrong with making it to the honors list. In fact it is very commendable and edifying. However, if we got it through cheating, then something is really, really wrong. If we made it to the top of our class because we never helped a classmate since he is a potential competition, then you never deserved the academic honors from the Ateneo after all. What is more important is what happens to you as you proverbially burn the midnight candle, as you struggle to comprehend logarithmic functions, decipher quantum numbers or help your classmates understand the history of western Asia. Success is becoming who our Creator designed you to be.
There is nothing wrong with being a Kostka awardee. You should be really proud of it. However, if you got it by behaving and cooperating merely because the teachers are around, then the award is meaningless. If you bully your classmates, commit all possible violations that the prefects could ever imagine when no one is looking and then boast that you have outwitted the prefects, then you just cheapened the Kostka award. What is more important is what happens to you when you try to discipline yourself in class in order to be attentive, when you follow rules even when no teacher is looking, when you actively participate in class. Success is becoming who your Creator designed you to be.
There is nothing wrong with being given the Eagle and staff excellence awards. Ateneo expects excellence from us. However, if in the process of becoming excellent formators, we pull down our colleagues, damage our healthy working relationship or smear our co-workers reputation just to put ourselves in good light, then something is really, really wrong. Our work output, no matter how excellent it is, becomes futile if in the process we have become monsters out to destroy each other’s integrity and credibility. Success is becoming who our Creator designed us to be.
Now, you might ask me: how do we know our call? How do we know who we are designed to be? We have to go back to our roots, to our fundamental identity in order to know our call. This reminds me of a scene in the movie, The Lion King. After the tragic death of Simba’s father, Scar drove the young Simba away. He grew up to become a carefree lion in the jungle, away from his kingdom. One night, he was visited by the spirit of his father. Let us watch this brief video clip:
Simba: Father?
Mufasa’s spirit: Simba, you have forgotten me.
Simba: No. How could I?
Mufasa’s spirit: You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself,
Simba. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the
Circle of Life.
Simba: How can I go back? I'm not who I used to be.
Mufasa: Remember who you are. You are my
son, and the one true king.
Look inside yourself. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the Circle of Life. Remember who you are. You are my son... Remember…remember….
The gospel today echoes that same line when Mary and Joseph, after finding Jesus with the elders, confronted him. And Jesus replied: “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” Jesus knew who he was and to whom he rightfully belonged. No, not even tradition and filial love could deter him. He had to be where his Father wanted him to be.
And so, I pose that same question to you my friends: Who are you? Whose are you? When we know deep inside ourselves who we are and are deeply rooted in it, no amount of mass media enticements of having the most can ever enslave us or stop us from pursuing what really matters.
This was the experience of St. Stanislaus when he decided to leave family and country and walked miles just to join the Society of Jesus. No amount of anger from his father or threat from his brother or the unpredictability of the weather or the risk of crossing countries by foot could stop him from what he believed was his call, from becoming who God designed him to be.
It is in the same spirit that we, the AHS Jesuits will once more renovate our vows before God, with you as witnesses. It is our hope that in spite of our individual weaknesses and limitations and the many challenges we face and may continue to face, we may hold firm to God’s plan for us. We may always be reminded that our call is irrevocable. In spite of the lures of the world as we struggle for magis, we may be reminded of the perpetual vows we made years ago, and be strengthened in our commitment and zeal to confirm our call as companions of Christ, as men on mission, as Jesuits.
And it is in the same spirit that we, the AHS community are invited to ponder today: That in our pursuit for magis, may we not be carried away by the lures of the world to simply be the best, the brightest and the strongest. In our effort to aspire for more class banners, to make it to the honors’ list, to receive the Kostka award and the Eagle and staff excellence awards, may we always be rooted in our identity in God and in the process, be transformed into men and women that God has designed us to be. Whether or not we get the banners or the awards after the struggle, it will no longer matter as long as we know that in our struggle for magis we have gradually become the persons God, our Father and Creator designed us to be.
And so let me leave you with this question for reflection: In your search for the magis as student, teacher, staff, parent or administrator, what has become of thee, the person that God wanted you to be?
